Interview with a Clone Chapter 3

I really never intended to let out this whole story,
this history of the world's first clone
before it even happens.
Still, the story brewed within me for decades
and stories sometimes should come out.

Interview with a Clone Chapter 3

Alice woke up parched, cold and aching in every possible joint of her
perfect clone body. She thought it unfair that she should carry her mother's arthritic
flaws as well as her Goddess like physical attributes.
She stretched and slowly emerged from her down sleeping bag.
The hum of the generator meant her faithful assistant Georgia was up and
tending to business. They had power, furnaces,
running water to save their food supply
and livestock. They needed generators because the solar panels choked on the weak sunlight.
There was constant cloud cover for weeks at a time.
Bahama was an eerie snowy scene. The animals were more resilient
then the people. Many died initially, with the cataclysm.
Those who lived were stronger, they persevered.
Those left at this compound, her mother's dream lab,
and Alice weathered the storm
like her mother would have, with grace and power, tact and will,
never giving up, still taking help when she needed it.
The smell of bacon permeated the air, fresh biscuits drew her to the kitchen
where Georgia's daughter Katie was ready to serve up breakfast. Hot coffee
and the wood cook stove made Alice's joints more compliant. She closed
her eyes and sipped coffee.
"Good mornin' Ms. Karma, " Katie kept things formal, respectfully distant,
cool not from arrogance but from being a sub-person, a servant.

Alice nodded. She thought how she wanted to change whatever Katie
felt about feeling that Katie had to be here,
that Katie was owned by Alice. In so many ways, they were each a victim of this
island lab, their mothers' choices, the science that demanded perfection, discipline,
both of their mothers were slaves to the work, the work that created Alice. The work
that made a slave to Katie, even if only in her mind.

Georgia walked in, sweaty, tanned, looking more tired than usual.
"Good mornin' Ms. Karma," Georgia said in her familiar tone.
She was the one who brought Alice into the world. Georgia had been a midwife,
mechanic, housefrau, nurse, agent to Susan, Alice's mom.

Alice nodded respectfully to this woman who she loved as her mother.
Now, without her own mother, the most powerful force in Alice's life.
"Come closer to the stove," Georgia led Alice, "And warm up, darlin'".